The food world erupted in glee when mouthwatering burgers from famous California fast food chain In-N-Out were recently made available for shipping, through the company Midtown Row, for a cool $56.
It got us thinking: With the holidays around the corner, who else is sending their scrumptious goods through the mail? We found 10 restaurants and bakeries that do just that, and some of the quality mail-order food might surprise you.
Ben’s Original Chili: Made with a quarter pound of pork and beef smoked sausage, the quaint Washington D.C. chili house’s classic dish has a fan club that includes President Barack Obama and Bill Cosby – in fact, their most classic version is named after Cosby. Ben’s chili can be shipped to any of the 50 states via FedEx.
ChocoBolo: Formerly known as The Best Chocolate Cake in the World, this bakery café makes an amazing, possibly the best, chocolate cake in the country. And now, along with other Portuguese pastries and desserts, they are shipping their goods nationwide from New York. “We have a lot of demands from all over the country,” said partner Adriano Calle Lucas. They have even sent their cakes to Hawaii.
Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue: For 50 years, this meat house has been smoking up some amazing barbecue in Kansas City. While they have four locations at which you can dine, you don’t have to travel to Missouri to get some of their fine products — including slabs of pork ribs, beef tenderloin, burnt ends and even their celebrated sauces and rubs.
Charles Vergos Rendezvous: Also in the meat business, Charles Vergos’s 60-year-plus restaurant might be one of the most famous barbecue places in the country. Imagine our surprise to find out they ship their Memphis-style ribs overnight, right after they spend a good deal of time in the smoker and get topped with their “World Famous” seasoning. They also offer their mustard slaw, baked beans and sauces for mail order.
Blackberry Farm: Farm-to-table takes on a new meaning at this popular, luxury resort in Walland, Tenn. Instead of just making their selection of artisanal cheeses, preserves, pickles and charcuterie available at their beautiful, Great Smoky Mountains restaurant, The Barn, they now send off all these goods via FedEx—straight to your table.
Olive Grove: From the outside, this 17-year-old Maryland eatery doesn’t look like much, but they have garnered a lot of favorable press for their crab cakes. By taking jumbo lump crabmeat and blending it with homemade breadcrumbs, eggs, mayonnaise and a super-secret seasoning, Olive Grove has hooked diners all across the nation — and now you can eat them anywhere in the nation.
Mary Mountain’s Cookies: Most people don’t realize how hard it is to bake at high altitudes, but at this darling cookie shop in Breckenridge, Colo., they have perfected it. If you stumbled on this tiny shop in the ski town, you might not realize how far their quarter-pound cookies go — literally. From chocolate caramel nut to snickerdoodles and oatmeal raisin, they are sent fresh from the mountains to you.
Portillo’s: This Chicago restaurant chain started with a downtown hot dog stand called “The Dog House” in 1963 and has now expanded with numerous restaurants across the Midwest. But wait, there’s more: They also ship Portillo’s hot dogs, barbecue ribs and their popular Italian beef with gravy to your home, as long as it’s in the United States.
Hubig’s Pies: New Orleans transplants can now rest with ease knowing the uber-popular pie shop delivers those apple, lemon, sweet potato, cherry, peach, coconut and chocolate pies to your door, wherever you end up living. They ship the handmade pies by the case, and unless you specify what you want, they send an assortment.
Lou Malnati's Pizzaria: Lou Malnati’s serves their classic Chicago-style deep dish pies not only to the happy folks lucky enough to live near them, but to anyone in the states who can place an order. Through cameos on shows “Pizza Wars” and “Throw Down with Bobby Flay,” not only do you get a tasty pie to your door, but a little slice of fame.
Is there a restaurant you wish would ship their food to you?